About RefDat Weather
RefDat Weather is an independent Australian climate reference. It puts long-record temperature, rainfall, humidity, and sunshine data for every Australian capital, regional centre, and major suburb in one place, with a single comfort score that summarises how pleasant the climate actually feels.
Why this exists
If you ask Google what the weather is like in Adelaide in October, you get a forecast for next Tuesday. If you ask what climate Bicheno has in winter, you get a tourism page. The free climate-summary pages on government sites do exist, but they live in different places, use different formats, and almost never compare locations on the same axis.
RefDat Weather pulls the underlying data into one consistent shape. Every page on this site sources from the same datasets, uses the same methodology, and presents the same kinds of figures, so you can compare Hobart in February against Cairns in February against Perth in February without translating units or hunting through PDFs.
What the site is
The core of the site is climate data for 213 Australian cities and another 300 major suburbs, sourced from official weather station networks. For each location you get:
- Monthly average maximum and minimum temperatures
- Monthly rainfall totals and number of rainy days
- Monthly solar exposure (a useful proxy for sunshine hours)
- Monthly average humidity
- A comfort score from 1 to 10 for every month and a yearly average, weighted on temperature, humidity, rainfall, and sun
- The best month to visit, and notes on what to expect when you do
Alongside the location pages there are tools: city-vs-city comparisons, "best weather for" finders (gardening, beach trips, frost-free zones), climate records, and a methodology page that explains exactly how the comfort score is calculated.
Where the data comes from
Australian climate observations come from two open data sources:
- Open-Meteo Historical Weather API (CC BY 4.0), which itself draws from ECMWF reanalysis and Bureau of Meteorology station data. This is the primary source for most cities and suburbs on the site.
- SILO (Queensland Government), an authoritative gridded climate dataset for Australia, built from BOM station observations. Used as a secondary source and for cross-validation.
- ACORN-SAT (Bureau of Meteorology), the long-record homogenised station dataset that goes back to 1910. Used for historical context where present.
Demographic and population figures for suburbs come from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census, via the postcodes.refdat.com sister dataset. All sources are open data under CC BY 4.0 or equivalent.
How the comfort score works
The comfort score is a 1-to-10 rating of how pleasant a month's climate is. It is calculated from four ingredients:
- Temperature: closeness to a 24°C ideal maximum, with penalties for very cold nights below 5°C and very hot days above 35°C.
- Humidity: a penalty above 55% relative humidity.
- Rainfall: a combined penalty for total millimetres and number of rainy days.
- Sunshine: a bonus for solar exposure above 8 MJ/m².
The full methodology, including the exact weightings, is on the comfort score page. The score is meant as a shorthand for comparing locations and seasons. It is not a substitute for personal preference. A score of 4 in winter Hobart is genuinely cold and wet, but if you love cold and wet, that 4 might be your ideal.
What this site is not
RefDat Weather is not a forecaster. We do not predict tomorrow's weather. For real-time forecasts, see the Bureau of Meteorology.
It is not a government site. We are not the BOM, the CSIRO, or any other agency. We are an independent reference using the same open data they publish.
It is not a complete record. We cover the locations and dates the underlying datasets cover. If a remote station has gaps, the corresponding page will show the available data and note when it stops.
It is not a climate-change platform. Climate change is real and the long-record trends are clearly upward, but this site's job is presenting the data cleanly, not lobbying. Where trends are visible in the data, we show them. Where they are not, we do not invent them.
Who builds it
RefDat Weather is part of the RefDat network of Australian reference sites. RefDat is a small independent operation that builds public-good reference tools from open data. Other sites in the network include postcodes.refdat.com (suburb demographics), fuelprices.refdat.com (live fuel prices), gluten.refdat.com (gluten in food), ndis.refdat.com (NDIS provider transparency), and convert.refdat.com (unit converters).
Where to go from here
If you want to find the most pleasant climate: the comfort score page ranks every Australian city by annual comfort.
If you want to plan a trip: the best weather for finder helps you match the right season to the right destination.
If you want hard records: the records page covers wettest, driest, hottest, coldest, sunniest.
If you want to compare two places: the compare cities tool puts them side by side.
If you want to dig into one place: browse NSW, VIC, QLD, WA, SA, TAS, NT, or ACT.
Disclaimer
Climate data is provided for informational purposes only. We work to keep it accurate and current, but we are not responsible for errors, omissions, or decisions made based on this information. The comfort score is a composite metric and should never be the sole basis for major decisions like relocation or property purchase. For operational decisions where weather genuinely matters, including aviation, agriculture, and emergency planning, always defer to the Bureau of Meteorology.
Page last reviewed May 2026. Climate data current as of the most recent regeneration; see individual location pages for dataset coverage notes. For corrections or attribution requests see Contact.